Some 1,300 volunteers from China's medical universities will
head to the country's rural areas, teaching villagers how to
prevent AIDS during their summer vacation.
The activity is part of a massive education project initiated
Saturday by 12 government departments, ministries and
organizations, in a bid to sharpen public awareness of AIDS,
especially among rural residents, youths and women.
The volunteers would go to the country's 127 pilot zones for
AIDS prevention, where AIDS epidemic are relatively serious and the
government's policies including free anti-retroviral drugs and free
counseling are being practiced, Vice Health Minister Wang Longde
said at the start-up ceremony of the project.
Meanwhile, millions of posters on AIDS prevention will be
distributed to villages, urban communities, universities and high
schools across the country.
Wang said the posters varied with different target groups. Those
for rural and urban residents mainly focused on preventative
knowledge and government policies, and those for university and
high school students included anti-drug information besides AIDS
knowledge.
In addition, the project also included a "face-to-face"
education plan on AIDS prevention for women aged between 15 to 49
in 51 counties, the first batch of places selected as the pilot
zones for AIDS prevention.
China reported its first AIDS case in 1985. By the end of
2003,the estimated number of HIV carriers in China reached 840,000
and the number is still growing.
Wang said China is facing serious AIDS threat and its anti-AIDS
campaign is at the critical moment. "Improving public awareness and
enhancing education is an effective way in preventing the spread of
the epidemic."
Khalid Malik, the United Nations resident coordinator in China,
said the project marked one of the biggest initiatives in the world
to prevent the spread of AIDS.
The implementation of the project would help reduce social
stigma to AIDS patients and improve public awareness of AIDS, said
Malik, who is also resident representative of the United Nations
Development Program in China. "The project is of landmark meaning
in the global fight against AIDS."
(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2004)